Missed your flight? It’s not you, it’s the UX designer

Remember that time you missed your flight and you blamed it on your karma, the exists-but-doesn’t-listen-to-you God, hard luck or simply a bad day. Add a UXdesigner to that list.

To give you a little more context, I missed my flight recently and had to book an expensive ticket back. I misread the time format. I showed up for a 4 pm flight when I had a 4 am flight. Silly, I know.

When I was booking tickets for this family vacation, I was already very late in booking them. Sitting in a stuffed Uber Share in the annoying traffic of Bangalore, I switched between a few flight booking apps. Some had the am-pm format, some the 24 hours. I needed a late evening Sunday night flight. I used an ancient airline website (read, Air India) as they seem to be the cheapest. They send me a pdf attachment Gmail can’t read and hence, doesn’t add to my calendar.

Yes, yes I know. I should have used a smart app to book flights, a smarter calendar to manage my flights. Noob level flight mishap. But that is not my point, I will come to my point.

My point is. And these may simply come off as a rant, I agree to it. But the point it.

When I was booking, why couldn’t the different flight booking apps notify me, it’s an early morning flight? There are only a few reasons people put themselves in the misery of an early morning flight, either the cost or work schedule.

The app should tell me SOMEHOW, be it through words, gradient-ed background or icons of sun moon itself.

My point here is, why couldn’t have a designer simplified the ticket that was sent out at my email address. It had everything upfront, except what I needed to double-check.

Cleaning up the ticket that ends up in my mobile as a pdf, or printed copies for my dad will work too.

And then again. Why was there no pre-journey message by the airline itself, to remind me to check-in/etc? Mostly there is, with Air India there was none.

Please please, reach out to me. In a nice way, not stalker-ish way.

All through this, I do agree it was a careless mistake on my part. But as a UX designer, I cannot help but pass part of the blame to an experience not well designed.

Just a rant, as a UX Designer for another UX designer. Watch out this space for more rants on UX and adulthood. Chhavi